Summary and Analysis of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America: Based on the Book by George Packer

By Worth Books

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of The Unwinding tells you what you need to know—before or after you read George Packer’s book.
 
Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.
 
This short summary and analysis of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America includes:
 

• Historical context
• Chapter-by-chapter overviews
• Profiles of the main characters
• Detailed timeline of key events
• Important quotes
• Fascinating trivia
• Glossary of terms
• Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

 
About The Unwinding by George Packer:
 
Detailing the United States’ decline in the latter half of the twentieth century, journalist George Packer’s The Unwinding reads like a memoir but contains the hard-hitting facts of an exposé. Packer’s history of America looks at a cast of interesting figures—from community organizers to laborers, Democratic Party staffers to small business owners—including household names such as Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell, Raymond Carver, Jay-Z, and Elizabeth Warren, to produce a stunning portrait of what the United States has become and where it’s headed next.
 
The Unwinding won the National Book Award, was a National Book Circle Award finalist, and was named by the New York Times as one of the best books to read to understand the Trump presidency.
 
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781504046459

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Book preview

Contents

Context

Overview

Summary

Timeline

Cast of Characters

Direct Quotes and Analysis

Trivia

What’s That Word?

Critical Response

About George Packer

For Your Information

Bibliography

Copyright

Context

Many economists consider the golden age of capitalism to be the postwar 1940s through the early 1970s. Employment was high and the economy was humming; education was cheap and accessible; middle-class families lived in newly built suburbs; and an average worker had enough money to go on vacation or buy a new car. Additionally, millions of unionized workers served as a bulwark against corporate power and influence, and the civil rights and feminist movements were active on college campuses, as was the burgeoning gay rights movement.

Then it all fell apart.

Corporate deindustrialization began to hollow out factories, industries, and even whole cities. Jobs moved overseas, large corporations abandoned entire regions, and unemployment soared. Even as worker productivity rose, wages stagnated or dropped, and social mobility declined. Meanwhile, the cost for necessities like healthcare, education, and retirement skyrocketed. The economy and the labor market have never recovered. Jobs continue to be outsourced, and prices on basic needs like healthcare and education continue to rise.

Many economists and political scientists blame this breakdown on neoliberalism: an ideological view that prizes globalization above local economy, corporate profits above social mobility, and finance above industry, as well as a powerful form of state-capitalism. Starting with Jimmy Carter, each president since the 1970s—both Republican and Democrat—has put these beliefs into action. Reagan applied them with remarkable zeal: Under his administration, anti-union forces, outsourcing, deregulation, and tax cutting flourished. Welfare provisions and healthcare came under fire. George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton were enthusiastic proponents, so much so that with successive presidents, the terms of the debate about labor and government influence have been permanently altered.

But the key factor now is Wall Street. The country, at the time of Unwinding’s publication in 2013, was in the grasp of a wild boom-and-bust economy beholden to big finance. Now,